- Uber aims for 1 million daily drone deliveries with Zipline partnership
Source: Engadget
“You could soon get your Uber Eats order delivered by a Zipline drone thanks to the latest partnership between the two companies. As detailed in an Uber press release, the company is targeting a goal of one million drone deliveries each day by end of 2029. The partnering companies also announced that the first deployments are scheduled for later this year, with drone deliveries first becoming available in Zipline’s existing US markets, including Pea Ridge, Ark. and the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, before expanding to dozens of more cities. On top of the combination of Uber’s network and Zipline’s drone fleet, Uber made a strategic investment into Zipline but didn’t disclose the financial details.” (08/17/26)
- NYC: 72-year-old woman sues gang for attacking her with pepper spray
Source: NBC News
“A 72-year-old woman says her civil rights were violated when an ICE agent in Manhattan sprayed her with pepper spray. Three weeks ago, Linda Wolff, an immigrant rights supporter who can often be found outside of Delaney Hall, said she was in Inwood when she got word ICE agents were [abducting people] in the area. She said she took out her phone and started recording. ‘I went back on the curb and was just filming ICE, and they walked over and they maced me,’ Wolff said Friday. ‘My civil rights were completely violated at that moment.’ Now, Wolff plans to take ICE to court.” (08/17/26)
- Russia: Court jails Kremlin critic for 11 years for opposing the war in Ukraine
Source: Newsday
“A Russian court on Monday convicted a prominent opposition politician for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison in the latest crackdown leading up to next month’s parliamentary election. The verdict against Lev Shlosberg, a senior member of the Yabloko party, was another step by the Kremlin to stifle dissent since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. Yabloko is the only official political party overtly opposing the war. Shlosberg, 63, is Yabloko’s deputy chairman and served in the regional legislature of Pskov from 2016-21. He stood trial in the city of Pskov, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of Moscow, on charges of ‘discrediting’ and spreading ‘false information’ about the Russian military.” [editor’s note: Yabloko briefly BECAME the only “official party” opposing the war last month after the Libertarian Party was banned, and was barred from ballots itself earlier this month – TLK] (08/17/26)
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/russia-ukraine-shlosberg-crackdown-election-yabloko-war-x47119
- SCOTUS again rejects sexual predator’s appeal against $5 million defamation judgment
Source: Reuters
“Rebuffing President Donald Trump for a second time, the U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear his appeal of a $5 million verdict in favor of E. Jean Carroll after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the former magazine columnist. The justices rejected Trump’s request to reconsider their previous decision in June denying his appeal of the 2023 jury verdict stemming from allegations that he raped her in the 1990s in a Manhattan department store’s dressing room. Trump’s lawyers contend that the trial was unfair. The Supreme Court is also weighing the Republican president’s appeal of a separate $83.3 million jury verdict for defaming Carroll in 2019 during his first term as president, when he denied the claims and asserted that she lied about the accusations. Trump’s lawyers in that appeal argue that presidential immunity shields him from Carroll’s claims and that lower courts wrongly decided that he had forfeited that defense.” (08/17/26)
- Mali: Journalist, influencer jailed for seven years for criticising junta
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“A Malian court sentenced on Monday a prominent broadcaster and an influencer, who had both criticised the ruling junta, to seven years in jail, an AFP journalist saw. The sentences are the latest handed to Malians critical of the unstable west African country’s military government, which came to power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. Television and radio commentator Mohamed Youssouf Bathily – alias Ras Bath – was convicted by the court in Bamako of criminal conspiracy and discrediting the state, alongside Rokia Doumbia, a noted campaigner known online as ‘Rose, the cost of living’. Both had been in custody for several years following the airing of a 2023 programme by the journalist dedicated to the economic difficulties facing ordinary Malians.” (08/17/26)
- US regime bond sell-off drives 30-year yields to highest since 2007
Source: Seattle Times
“The yield on 30-year U.S. Treasuries hit the highest in almost two decades, reflecting investor angst over the surging national debt, a flood of long-dated bond sales and inflation that’s been stuck over the Federal Reserve’s target for the past five years. The rate on the so-called long bond rose three basis points to 5.29% on Monday, the highest since 2007. The move pushed it closer to that year’s 5.44% peak during the early days of the global financial crisis. The rise, which is driving up the U.S. government’s borrowing costs, is part of a broader trend in global bond markets, where investors are demanding more compensation to protect themselves against the risk of mounting government debts and persistently high inflation that’s likely to keep short-term interest rates elevated.” (08/17/26)
- “Negotiations” Aren’t the Answer in Iran or Ukraine
Source: The Bulwark
by Brynn Tannehill“Fundamentally, the United States and Russia have both launched wars of choice from which they cannot easily extricate themselves. In Russia there is a history of very bad things happening to rulers who lose wars, and Putin is reportedly considering another mass mobilization, despite the disruption and discontent it will cause. Trump is facing the loss of both the House and the Senate, and is open to declaring a national emergency to rule by fiat and rewrite election rules to rig the elections. In other words, both Russian and American leaders are enmeshed in a war they can’t seem to win, and to stave off the consequences of losing, both are willing to take steps that will produce massive unrest. The key difference between the countries is that Russia still has a semi-plausible path to victory.” (08/17/26)
- Has Trump’s War on Immigrants Made America Great Again?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Upon being elected president, both the first time and the second time, President Trump vowed to make America great again. That’s what his MAGA movement has been all about. Central to Trump’s vow has been his war on immigrants, which I think most everyone would describe as ruthless and brutal. … Has all this immigration police-state mayhem made America great again? It sure doesn’t seem so to me. In fact, all I see is things getting worse and worse, especially from the standpoint of liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony.” (08/17/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/08/17/has-trumps-war-on-immigrants-made-america-great-again/
- Campus hecklers are silencing pro-Israel speakers. Speech codes are not the fix.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Max Friedman“There is no First Amendment privilege to prevent someone else from speaking in reserved spaces. Blocking others from expressing viewpoints that may be uncommon or unpopular on campus frustrates the marketplace of ideas: It interferes with others’ right to listen and leaves the campus community with an incomplete understanding of the debate. This principle applies equally to all speakers, including those expressing pro-Israel viewpoints. Universities have the tools they need to respond to these incidents. For example, they can prohibit students from intentionally, materially, and substantially disrupting others’ expressive activities in reserved spaces, and they can discipline students who violate that prohibition. … What these institutions — and the state — should not do is respond to illiberal actions by proposing illiberal remedies, such as incorporating the vague and viewpoint-discriminatory IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism into campus harassment policies.” (08/17/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/campus-hecklers-are-silencing-pro-israel-speakers-speech-codes-are-not-fix
- How a Self-help Book Resolved a Philosophical Conundrum Part 1
Source: The Jolly Libertarian
by Marco den Ouden“I was undecided on what to call this essay and had thought about Reconciling David Hume and Ayn Rand. I even thought about having AI generate a graphic for it. Ayn and David duking it out in a boxing ring. Ayn and David engaged in a sword fight but using giant pens instead of swords. Or maybe a referee holding up both their gloved hands and ruling the match a draw. I hadn’t thought much about Hume since university in the late 60s and early 70s. But I was intrigued when I read Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. … Haidt reintroduced me to Hume. In particular, Hume’s maxim that ‘reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey.'” (08/17/26)
https://jollylibertarian.blogspot.com/2026/08/how-self-help-book-resolved.html
- A Special Kind of Person
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“A special kind of person walks among us. Under the right institutional conditions, she is capable of assembling people and resources to serve others sustainably. If she fails to serve others—say, if enough of them are unhappy with the product or service she offers—she will be unable to continue her efforts. So, her efforts come with great risk, and some risks have clear odds. Hers? Not so much. An insurer will price the chance that her business burns down because businesses have burned down before. Yet no one will sell her a policy against her failure to serve others well. … She, the entrepreneur, also has to serve others sustainably despite the presence of interlopers.” (08/17/26)
- The Simple Lesson of Jason Arday: Don’t Be a Fraud
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“It’s a sad story, the life of Jason Arday – the former Cambridge professor exposed as a fraud and plagiarist, who is now suspected of killing himself. I didn’t know him, had barely heard of him, but it was pretty clear that much of the life story he sold the world did not add up. Just how much of it was fake will come out eventually, but none of it needed to be. People must realize that it is what you actually do that matters, not your sad tale of woe nor any part of your biography.” (08/17/26)
- When does protest become terrorism?
Source: Project Liberal
by Oliver Gale“How the UK is changing the rules on petty crime to attack free speech.” (08/17/26)
https://projectliberal.substack.com/p/when-does-protest-become-terrorism
- Israel creates fake think tank in likely attempt to dupe AI chatbots
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nick Cleveland-Stout“At a glance, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy looks like a new think tank dedicated to Israel/Palestine. The organization churns out think-tank style reports on questions such as ‘Does AIPAC Use ‘Dark Money in Elections?’ and ‘Is Israel Carrying out a Deliberate Campaign of Starvation in Gaza?’ But the Hanover Institute is not a real think tank. None of the reports have bylines. A small disclaimer at the bottom of the webpage notes that the organization was created on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency by Piro, Inc, a firm co-founded by Daniel Rosenberg, the producer of Spike Lee’s ‘Inside Man.’ The Hanover Institute’s reports — all of which are about Israel and Palestine — appear to be part of an Israeli effort to influence chatbots.” (08/17/26)
- Japan eyes nonartificial intelligence
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“In trying to hatch their own artificial intelligence, many countries are playing catch-up to the two world giants: the United States and China. In recent months, however, Japan has taken a different course. It admits it cannot create the most advanced AI models. Yet it might be the first nation to put AI at the center of a new economic strategy. In late July, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s Cabinet approved a plan to inject $2.3 trillion in public and private investment toward strengthening key industries by 2040, starting with AI and the computer chips that run it. The plan goes beyond merely automating current work, improving efficiencies, cutting costs, or boosting the economy. It would also enhance human creativity and innovation by focusing on applying AI to real-world problems – starting on the factory floor of Japan’s existing world-class manufacturing industries.” (08/14/26)
- The School Shooter Civilization
Source: Liberal Currents
by John Banks“‘Civilizationist’ thinking, once confined to the radical fringe and the manifestos of mass killers, has moved to the center of American foreign policy.” (08/17/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-schoool-shooter-civilization/
- Quantum Vibe, 08/17/26
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott BieserCartoon. (08/17/26)
- For the American Left, Nothing Succeeds as Much as Failure
Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley“Below is my column in The Hill on the familiar bust-and-boom cycle of socialism, where failure is used to call for even more radical changes. While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week reaffirmed that Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic Party, radical figures are demonstrating how extreme this agenda is for some. For example, Socialist State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher has declared that stealing should be legal for those in need. If socialism takes hold in New York, many will indeed need five-finger discounts in the Big Apple. From New York to California, the American left is proving that nothing succeeds like failure. In areas ranging from immigration to taxes to health care, politicians are playing to their past fiascos to push an even more radical agenda. Take immigration.” (08/17/26)
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/08/17/for-the-american-left-nothing-succeeds-as-much-as-failure/
- Return of the Property Tax Revolt
Source: Law & Liberty
by Thomas Savidge“It’s fine to oppose property taxes, but without binding rules, the state will go on helping itself to taxpayer money.” (08/17/26)
- The Price of Fed Silence
Source: The Daily Economy
by Stephen Lewarne“When the Fed withholds information, markets don’t stop searching — they simply reward those with privileged access.” (08/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-price-of-fed-silence/
- We All Know This Civilization Is Doomed, But They Keep Telling Us Everything’s Normal
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone“Life in the 2020s comes with so much dissonance and dysphoria because everyone knows this civilization is doomed, but it’s not being acknowledged by any of our mainstream institutions. We can all see everything getting worse and worse before our eyes in real time, but our government officials don’t talk about it. Our mass media outlets don’t report on it. Our education systems don’t recognize it. There’s a giant elephant in the room with us at all times, and normal people are acutely aware of it, but the talking heads keep speaking as though everything’s going to keep ticking along normally into the foreseeable future. We can all see the summers heating up. We can all see that there are fewer insects and less wildlife around than when we were young. We can all see that the western empire is on borrowed time.” (08/17/26)
- What Exactly Is “Narcoterrorism?”
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño“Credit for the coinage belongs to Peru’s Fernando Belaúnde Terry. Foreign Policy traces his first use to 1982, after Shining Path hit a prison and a police station, when he called what he saw ‘narco-terrorism — the union of the vice of narcotics with the violence of terrorism.’ The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism places the birth year at 1983 instead. The date stays unsettled because the idea underneath never firmed up. Experts remain split over whether the term ‘designates too broad a range of activities to be definitive.’ Elasticity proved to be the feature. … Every fresh narcoterrorism designation narrows the space between a criminal suspect and a lawful target, and it narrows that space inside their own borders first.” (08/17/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/what-exactly-is-narcoterrorism/
- Medicare-for-all, private insurance for none
Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru“Americans, for all their complaints about the health care system, generally dread the prospect of Washington disrupting their insurance. Many surveys have found that most people are satisfied with what they have. When Bill Clinton proposed a more government-run system a generation ago, the most potent attack against it was that it threatened that coverage. Barack Obama, having learned from Clinton’s failure to enact his legislation, made ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan’ a central promise of his own health policy. The lowest political moment for Obamacare was when that promise didn’t bear out for 4 million people who saw their plans canceled. … Medicare-for-all would impose more radical disruptions on the health care system than any of these earlier proposals and laws.” (08/17/26)
- The Iran war has exposed the limits of the US military
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy“The Trump administration chose this war, launched it without congressional authorization, has repeatedly changed its definition of success and has failed to define an achievable political end. It owns the strategic failure. But bad strategy does not absolve military leaders of responsibility for how military force has been employed.” (08/17/26)
- Chaos and the Birth of Order
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Charles Krblich“Growing up, I never cared for Mathematics. It was too logical, bland, boring, difficult, and when contrasted against the stories, battles, wars, glory, destruction, growth, and exploration that was History, I never gave it a fair chance. So it was one of the little ironies of life, that I came to do Mathematics for a living. Focused study softened the difficulty, and armed with growing knowledge, bland and boring transformed to mildly charming. With new perspective, I discovered what has since become my favorite toy, a Galton Board. The toy is a small window into our experience over the last several years in which our free and independent lives have clashed broadly against arcane, top-down rules conceived by bureaucrats.” (08/17/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/chaos-and-the-birth-of-order/
- Florida needs Byron Donalds to protect the DeSantis legacy
Source: Fox News
by Gianno Caldwell“When COVID hit in March 2020, I was living in Los Angeles. What I saw there changed the course of my life. It became clear almost immediately that local officials in California weren’t following the science. They were following the politics. Every decision, every mandate, every shutdown got filtered through one lens: how do we use this crisis to fight back against Trump and Republicans? Californians paid for that calculation. Businesses shuttered. Kids lost years of school. Families lost everything they’d built. I watched it happen in real time. Florida went a different way. Governor Ron DeSantis stood firm.” [editor’s note: DeSantis did his best impression of Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer having a secret love child until he realized Floridians were ignoring and/or laughing at him. Then he did his best impression of Mel Gibson yelling “FREEEEEEDOOOMMMM!” in Braveheart – TLK] (08/17/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gianno-caldwell-florida-needs-byron-donalds-protect-desantis-legacy
- Reason Roundtable, 08/17/26
Source: Reason
“Who Pays for Medicare for All?” (08/17/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/08/17/who-pays-for-medicare-for-all/
- Rising, 08/17/26
Source: The Hill
“obby Soave gives his radar on Candace Owens saying she thinks there’s a ‘zero percent’ chance that Tyler Robinson, the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk, is the true culprit.” (08/17/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 08/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump To Oman: ‘We’ll Bomb The Sh*t Out of You!'” (08/17/26)
- The Vital Center, episode 97
Source: Niskanen Center
“Richard Nixon’s elusive totality, with Lee Huebner.” (08/17/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/richard-nixons-elusive-totality-with-lee-huebner
- Everyday Samurai Life, episode 71
Source: Everyday Samurai
“Not Civil War.” (08/17/26)
- EconTalk, 08/17/26
Source: EconTalk
“The Hidden Cause of the Industrial Revolution (with Ben Southwood).” (08/17/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-hidden-cause-of-the-industrial-revolution-with-ben-southwood/
- The Kyle Anzalone Showa, 08/17/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski: RUBIO V. Vance: The White House Factions Frustrating Trump?” (08/17/26)